Gross market borrowings won't be topped: FM

The finance ministry has said the gross market borrowing of Rs 1,52,856 crore for the current year would not be exceeded.

An official said it had advanced part of the market borrowing for the July 3-11 period by hiking the size of a bond auction by Rs 4,000 crore scheduled to be held on June 22.

"The additional amount is not an addition to the overall borrowing for the fiscal year and will be adjusted against borrowing scheduled for the remaining part of the year," the official said.

Earlier during the day, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram said gross market borrowing for the current fiscal would not be exceeded.

The finance ministry official said the advance borrowing was being done due to liquidity concerns and to meet cash requirements of the government. "There is nothing other than this," he added.

These comments were in line with what the RBI had said earlier in the day.

Stating that the last week's decision to raise the size of the bond auction was aimed at managing the government's borrowing programme, RBI deputy governor Rakesh Mohan said, "There is enough liquidity. So opportunity was taken to manage the borrowing. It was a front loaded a little bit'.

This is the first time that the government has advanced its borrowing programme. For the current fiscal it has borrowed Rs 52,000 crore for the period 1 April to date.